When Irene Klar was a kid, her mom used to drag her to museums.
“I knew something had changed, probably by the time I was 12, and I noticed I took much longer in the museum than she did,” Klar says. “When I was little, it seemed like she stayed forever. And at a certain point, she was the one telling me to hurry up.”
Much of Irene Klar’s artwork is inspired by her travels.
Klar has now been a professional artist for more than 40 years, focusing on watercolors and etchings.
“I do etchings to make sure I’m constantly frustrated and to stay really humble,” Klar laughs. “I find watercolors to be more forgiving, so watercolors and I have a better understanding.”
A late friend of Klar’s once told her to “never be afraid of the struggle.”
“I would say it’s too hard sometimes and that other people have such ease with their medium,” Klar says. “And he said, ‘People like to see the struggle. They don’t like it to look easy.’”
Irene Klar has been a painter since the 1970s and she began etchings about two decades later.
Though Klar has been interested in art since she was very young, she went to college for physical therapy and science.
“After working in hospitals for three years, my husband asked why I was doing this when I really wanted to be in art,” Klar says.
With encouragement from her husband, Klar went back to school to receive her degree in fine arts.
“Since then — since 1977 — I’ve always been a painter,” she says, adding that she started etchings about 20 years later and also taught watercolor at the University of Alberta in Canada for at least a decade.
“It doesn’t really matter where I travel,” Irene Klar says. “I get inspired by the same things. It’s human invention and creativity that keep me going.”
Much of Klar’s artwork is inspired by places she’s traveled to and cultures she’s seen along the way.
“It doesn’t really matter where I travel,” she says. “I get inspired by the same things. It’s human invention and creativity that keep me going.”
“Art is visual and it’s very hard to make sure that the person you’re talking to sees what it is you’re trying to describe,” she says. “But I am, and have always been, interested in different cultures and patterns and color. And I’m amazed at the variety of patterns that people can create and I’m always equally amazed at how you can see similarities around the world.
“It’s wonderful to just be able to observe other people’s worlds and to be somewhere different where you’re not necessarily in control and where you have to be open to new experiences.”
When Klar visits art galleries, she says she looks for “the sense of awe.”
“If somebody gets that sense from something I’ve done, it’s sort of the greatest compliment.”
Irene Klar also taught watercolor painting to college students for at least a decade.
